Princeton University - Nassau Herald Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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Class Omtiou of the nation. Life and energy were not bestowed upon us to be harbored, buried in a napkin or hidden under a bushel. If they are dealt with thus they are soon dissipated and vanish. He that loseth his life, loses himself in work and endeavor to aid civilization in her grand march of progress, He it is that finds life, finds the true art of living. For such services we must have trained men and the ques- tion at once arises, where are they to be trained? I know of no institution better fitted nor any upon whom this duty is more incumbent than the academic universities of the country. The charge is often made that the usual college education is worthless, that it is made up of four years spent in ease and comparative idleness. Modesty forbids one to answer the charge, but of this I feel confident that when the universities of the land shall have caught the full significance of the service they owe the country, these accusations will no longer be made. Unless the college shall take the youth as he comes to it in allhis spirit of bigotry, snobbishness and self-centered- ness-3 mould him, teach him, remake him, and send him out into life a trained, democratic, public spirited citizen,-I say, unless it does these things it is unworthy of any support and has betrayed the trust committed to it. To whom else are we to look except to the colleges for the political training of our youth. This most important phase of education has too long been neglected and left in the hands of professional politi- cians. lt is about time some of the colleges substituted courses on Business Methods in City Government or National Legislation as It Should Be for such courses as The Topo- graphy and Monuments of Greece as Described by Pausaniasu or Self-realization and the Ethics of Idealism. We may well be proud that from a fair judgment of the facts, Princeton appears to have been the first university of the country to realize the duty she owes the nation, for if four year's residence here teaches a student anything it is that he is to go forth into citizenship to work for the political well- being of his country and to make of himself a statesman, in the true sense of the word, whether in public or private life. The 25

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The N assau H erald is practically ignored and a man who rises to a position in this vocation has usually received his training in a most incomplete and haphazard manner. The folly of such a course is appar- ent and we have only too often paid the penalty. A man is not a banker simply because he has money invested in such an institution 5 a clerk is not a captain of industry even though his desk may be in a room adjoining his employer's ofliceg neither is a low-charactered politician a statesman because a mass of ignorant voters has given him entrance to our legis- lative halls. The peculiarity of this exacting mistress known as Democracy is that she demands of every citizen that he be a statesman. It may not be for him to carry on the active functions of the government but he must at least have a statesman's foresight in selecting the men to Whom these duties shall be delegated. If the men of the country are not worthy of this trust placed in them, if they are unequal to the task, then is Democracy a failure and Despotism or Aristocracy must rule in her stead. And, I think We do not have to listen very hard to hear that cry Democracy in this country is con- tinually sending up,-a plea for more true men: God give us men! .......... Men Men Men Men Whom the lust of Ofl'lCS does not kill 5 Whom the spoils of office cannot buy, who possess opinions and a Will, who have honor,-men who will not lie, Men who can stand before a demagogue, And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking! Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty, and in private thinking. Who is to produce these men? Today there are institu tions throughout the land without number for training men in medicine, law and engineering and scores of other professions, but their slogan is, We can teach you how to amass great Wealth for yourselves. And the man who enters life with that as his central aim is not the man for Whom We are seeking. What we want are more men taught how they may give, give their strength, give their brains, give themselves to the service 24

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The Nassau H erald very atmosphere of this place bespeaks service rendered the nation, and there is no greater encomium We could ask to be passed upon Princeton. When We think of all the men she has sent forth and the part she has played in the making and the keeping of the nation, our hearts fill with pride that we too are among her sons, soon to enter life commissioned with her orders for service. When, fifty or seventy-five years hence the final records of the Class of IQIO will be gathered together, and all of its members shall have departed save the last one of us left to perform this final duty, I sincerely hope that that historian, whoever he may be will not undertake to estimate the success of this Class byithe amount of Wealth its members shall have gained, nor by the positions or fame We may have vvon in selfish pursuits. But in so far as he can find that the 240 men now graduating from Princeton rendered service to their country, stood for upright Democracy and aided society in her efforts to advance, to that extent may he say that the Class of 1910 was successful, was true to the ideals of her Alma Mater and demonstrated the proper Relations of University and State. 26